Hitherto, at a hospital, a plurality of types of medications prescribed by doctors are separately packaged for each dosage by using a tablet packaging machine disclosed in, for example, Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 3-59 (A61J3/00), then supplied to patients. However, such a separately packaging system is adapted to dispense tablets for each dosage and collect them by a hopper or a conveyor or the like before packaging them, thus requiring a long time to complete the packaging, including the time for waiting the tablets to be collected. Furthermore, the tablets are collected by such a hopper or a conveyor or the like, solely depending on the gravity, so that the entire apparatus has inevitably been bulky.
This is also a medication filling apparatus adapted to charge each type of prescribed tablets in a container, such as a bottle (or a bag) to supply them to patients. In the case of such a tablet filling apparatus, a construction has conventionally been employed in which a plurality of tablet cases accommodating respective types of tablets are arranged like lockers so that they are tilted low forward, and each tablet case is provided with a dispensing mechanism for dispensing the tablets from the tablet case to thereby dispense the tablets in a tablet case designated according to a prescription by the dispensing mechanism.
In such a tablet filling apparatus, since tablets are not separately packaged for each dosage, the tablets can be charged more quickly than in the tablet packaging machine described above. However, an operator must hold a container and go to the front of a proper tablet case to fill a container with tablets from the dispensing mechanism. Hence, if there are many types of tablets, in particular, it has been extremely complicated and time-consuming to fill different types of containers.
Furthermore, since the plurality of tablet cases are arranged like lockers against a wall surface, it has been impossible to achieve a reduction in size of an entire apparatus that has been required of a conventional tablet packaging machine.
Therefore, the applicant has developed a structure in which a rotary plate is provided under a plurality of tablet cases arranged side by side, a plurality of accommodating portions are formed in the rotary plate, a tablet dispensed from a tablet case is received and held in a predetermined accommodating portion associated with the tablet case and located below the tablet case by the rotation of the rotary plate, and then the tablet is charged in a container from an outlet, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 10-192367.
According to the construction, tablets can be charged at one location, and the vertical dimension of an entire apparatus can be reduced, as compared with a conventional conveyor type or a locker type apparatus; however, tablets are prone to jump into another accommodating portion through a clearance (gap) formed around the periphery of the rotary plate when the rotary plate rotates, leading to a possibility of mixture of different types of medications.
In addition, the clearance between the rotary plate and its peripheral member must be closely specified in designing and manufacture to prevent the above, posing a problem in that the productivity is deteriorated and the cost is increased.
The present invention has been made with a view toward solving the conventional technological problems, and it is an object thereof to improve the ease of installation and maintenance and to permit a safe and reliable filling operation, while maintaining a small size in a medication filling apparatus for filling a predetermined container with medications, such as tablets.